Man to stand trial in slayings of 2 store workers

A judge on Friday ordered a convicted sex offender to stand trial on murder charges in the shooting deaths of two 20-year-old Dearborn discount store workers.

AP

A judge on Friday ordered a convicted sex offender to stand trial on murder charges in the shooting deaths of two 20-year-old Dearborn discount store workers.

Lavere Bryant, 34, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges in the July killings of Joseph Orlando and Brenna Machus.

Surveillance video shows the suspect enter the Family Dollar store where the victims worked on the night of July 15 and leave later with Machus. A co-worker found Orlando's body in the store the next day, and Machus' was found dead two days later in some woods in Dearborn, which is west of Detroit.

Bryant's fiancee, Astrin Chandler, testified Friday that contrary to what police say, she did not tell officers that the suspect in the surveillance video resembled Bryant.

But Judge Sam Salamey of the 19th District Court deemed there to be enough evidence to warrant sending the case to trial.

Authorities haven't disclosed a possible motive for the killings. Bryant was fired last spring from a Family Dollar in nearby Inkster.

In 1999, he pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal sexual conduct. He was sentenced to jail time and probation and had to register as a sex offender, according to a court filing and the Michigan State Police.

Two years later, he was locked up on an assault charge. He was transferred to the Ionia Correctional Facility in 2011 from a prison in Marquette and was released days later.